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League of Legends' best top laners for Solo Queue
Squaring up to opponents is easy when you have these LoL champions to conquer top lane duels.
Each year is a little different for top laners in League of Legends. Currently, the benefits of prioritizing playing around the bottom side of the map have never been higher, and as a result, the age-old phrase of top lane being an ‘island’ on Summoner’s Rift rings more true than ever. However, in the chaos that is solo queue, there are still a myriad of ways a player can carry the game by themselves from the top lane. Let’s take a look at some of the best top laners to play in solo queue.
1) Malphite
Malphite - League of Legends
© Riot Games
Malphite’s strengths are very well-defined. He does magic damage, but most commonly he’s built as a tank in the top lane against physical damage opponents. His passive, Granite Shield, allows him to take extra damage based on his maximum health, and the damage from his E scales off of his armor.
The way Malphite functions as a top lane tank is relatively binary. His Q, Seismic Shard, allows him to maintain a better lane presence than most tank champions, and in the chaos that is solo queue, his ultimate, Unstoppable Force, is one of the most reliable initiations in the game because of its potent combination of range and long knock-up time, allowing for less coordinated teammates to still follow-up with more leeway than most hard engage options.
Malphite can go even or win against other tanks and provide consistent impact regardless of the coordination level of his teammates, and when most of the carry champions in the top lane deal physical damage, it’s hard to think of a better pick in solo queue if you need to round out a team composition with a hard engage tank.
2) Cho’Gath
Cho'Gath League of Legends
© Riot Games
Cho’Gath has seen a resurgence in professional play – in all three lanes, no less. Some champions that are strong in professional play like Ryze and Azir often struggle in solo queue because of the high level of coordinated execution required to get the most out of their kits. Cho’Gath isn’t quite Malphite easy, but he’s simple enough. His W, Feral Scream, is one of only three area-of-effect silences in the game, and his ultimate, Feast, has great versatility.
Feast functions as a point and click execute in combat, but can be used to consume minions or help secure neutral monster objectives in the later stages of the game. Cho’Gath doesn’t have any dashes, and the knockup on his Q, Rupture, has a bit of a queue time, so it’s best to pair him with at least one other source of CC to allow Cho’Gath to follow-up.
Fortunately, Cho’Gath can build as a full tank or as a mage, which makes him incredibly flexible. Between Rod of Ages and his ability to stack health using Feast, he can dish out a ton of damage while still being plenty beefier than your standard mage champion.
3) Olaf
Olaf League of Legends
© Riot Games
Olaf is another champion with well-defined strengths and weaknesses. His base stats are among the highest in the game, and while he doesn’t have a lot of crowd control or ways to play aside from running at the opponent, he can wreak havoc once he gets in range to beat on the opponents he’s chasing down.
Olaf’s most important ability is his ultimate, Ragnarok, because it increases his defenses and can make him immune to CC. In a duel, this ability might be better saved until midway through an all-in depending on the matchup, but in a teamfight, it allows Olaf to be tankier while running through any crowd control that would stop him, and if there’s no way to stop Olaf, any champion is going to have a tough time straight-up outdamaging him.
It’s not just Olaf’s massive base stats that make him such a damage threat. His passive gives him attack speed and lifesteal based on missing health, and targets hit by his Q, a skillshot called Undertow in which Olaf throws an axe at his opponent, reduces their armor and movespeed and the cooldown on the ability can even be reset if Olaf picks up the axe after it’s thrown. His W gives him attack speed, damage reduction, and a shield, and his E, Reckless Swing deals true damage to him and his opponent. However, if Olaf executes an enemy with Reckless Swing, he gets his health cost refunded.
Since Olaf is essentially a giant stat stick, he’s pretty useless if he falls behind in the early game, and he is best with a jungler with crowd control to capitalize on his enormous early game potential.
4) Fiora
Fiora League of Legends
© Riot Games
Fiora stays true to her Grand Duelist epithet – she’s specialized for 1v1 combat. Her passive, Duelist’s Dance, puts a Vital mark on the enemy champion when Fiora hits them and is the centerpiece of her kit. The Vital mark appears on the side of the champion Fiora hit.
Her Q, Lunge, has a quick dash before the attack and procs her passive, and her W, Riposte, is perfect for dueling because of its ability to counter CC with a slow – or stun, if the incoming CC is immobilizing – for opponents hoping to buy time against Fiora. Her E, Bladework, gives her two increased attack speed attacks, and with the first one slowing and the second one critically striking, wounded enemies looking to get away are usually not so lucky.
Fiora’s ultimate, Grand Challenge, reveals all four Vitals around the champion she’s targeting and gives the Grand Duelist movespeed to close the gap on her target. If the target dies after Fiora hits at least one Vital, or if Fiora hits all four Vitals at any point, Fiora and her teammates in the area are healed for a few seconds.
The healing from Grand Challenge is nice, but at the end of the day, it’s still a single-target ability. Fiora is viable in professional play, but has fallen out of favor because she’s a far better duelist and splitpusher than she is a teamfighter, and at the highest level of League of Legends, 5v5 is the name of the game. However, solo queue is far less coordinated than professional play, which benefits Fiora in a couple of ways. First, the lack of coordination makes it easier for Fiora to navigate teamfights, and second, split-pushing is a far more viable win condition in solo queue than it is in pro play, allowing Fiora more options to thrive in an isolated lane instead of having to navigate a full teamfight. At any level, though, Fiora requires a bit more finesse than the other champions on this list.
5) Jax
Jax League of Legends
© Riot Games
Jax has been a favorite of top laners since his release over a decade ago, and in 2023, the Grandmaster at Arms received a midscope update that gave his moveset a little tune-up without changing the core identity of his design. His Q, Leap Strike, as well as his E, Counter Strike, got some numbers changes, but the biggest change was to his ultimate, Grandmaster’s Might.
In addition to numbers adjustments, Grandmaster’s Might’s active portion of the ability now deals damage and rewards Jax for hitting multiple enemies with stat boosts instead of being a simple statistic steroid.
This reinforces Jax’s identity as a champion. After a damage item or two, Jax fan index into tank stats or go full-glass cannon, and the way his abilities interact with one another allow him to optimize for a split-pushing, duel-centric style of play while still being viable in 5v5 teamfights. His laning phase can be a bit rough against ranged champions, but most melee champions aren’t going to punish him hard enough to invalidate his scaling. The flexible, hybrid nature of Jax makes him a good pick in solo queue because he offers versatility without an extremely high skill ceiling. Just imagine if he had a real weapon.
